


Apex Academy

by Lastly



Category: Apex Legends (Video Games)
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, F/F
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-08-09
Updated: 2019-08-10
Packaged: 2020-08-13 08:23:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 7,553
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20171149
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lastly/pseuds/Lastly
Summary: Anita is a loudmouth delinquent and Wraith is a timid loner. It seemed unlikely that they'd ever be friends but now it seems like they may end up as much more than that. What does their future at Apex Academy hold?





	1. Chapter 1

"Hello again, Ms. Williams. You're late. Again." Mr. Blisk was at the front of the classroom, clipboard in hand, and marked down Anita Williams on the Detention Attendence sheet.

"I had to take a piss." Anita said loudly without even looking at Mr. Blisk. She headed to the seat that was in the dead center of all the desks in the classroom and plopped down, immediately leaning back into a very relaxed posture.

"Well we've only got one other student to keep you company this afternoon-"

"Oooohhh, look who it is! _Wraith_!" Anita interrupted Mr. Blisk, her gaze drawn to the other girl. "Hey, why do they call you that, anyway?"

"I dunno..." Wraith quietly responded, her eyes locked on a spot on the floor as she tried her best to avoid eye contact at all costs.

"Well, we've got half an hour together. Behave yourselves. Or else." Mr. Blisk finished marking the attendence sheet and then headed to the back of the room where his desk was, sat down, and picked up a rather thick novel and started reading. He seemed to be about as interested in being here, monitoring detention, as the students were in being there serving it.

"So what're you in for?" Anita asked Wraith.

"No talking." Mr. Blisk barked out without looking up from his book.

"Sorry, Mr. Blisk." Anita said, surprisingly, without a hint of sarcasm. However, she immediately leaned forward and whispered the question to Wraith again.

"He said we're not allowed to talk." she whispered back. Anita rolled her eyes and leaned back in her chair once again. Wraith looked over her shoulder at Mr. Blisk's desk at the back of the room, nervous that maybe he had heard her but it seemed that either he hadn't noticed or didn't care.

Wraith glanced around as the room fell to an almost eerie silence. Mr. Blisk was behind his desk and Anita was just staring out a window at nothing in particular. Wraith had never been in detention before but she was now realizing that it wasn't so much the terrible punishment she had always assumed it was and that it was really just sort of an afterschool study hall. With her newfound knowledge, she pulled her calculus textbook out of her bag and started working on the homework that Mr. Richter had assigned earlier that day.

Wraith actually enjoyed how quiet the room was. Normally, a study hall had at least some noise but this room was almost completely silent. That is, until Mr. Blisk checked the time on his phone and then got up from his desk and walked to the front of the classroom to say something.

"Okay you two, there's only about ten minutes left but I have more important places to be. So just look after yourselves and you can leave once it's time."

"Okay Mr. Blisk." Wraith replied meekly.

"Whatever." Anita seemed to be barely paying attention, her gaze still focused on something out one of the windows.

Mr. Blisk looked the pair over one last time and then headed out the door, making sure to close the door behind him as quietly as possible. Anita's attention suddenly snapped to the door and, after waiting about thirty seconds, she got up from her desk and peeked out the door. After a few moments, Anita looked back over at Wraith and waved at her.

"Come on, let's get out of here." she said calmly.

"But... we still have ten minutes left." Anita stared at Wraith, surprised at how naive the girl sounded. Her voice sounded like she had spent most of her life doing her absolute best to never break any rules and Anita made a sudden decision that she was going to do her best to change that about her.

"He's not coming back, it's not like we'll get in trouble. He basically gave us early parole for good behavior." Wraith considered Anita's words for a moment. She found them strangely tempting despite them not being particularly convincing. 

"What if someone else comes in? Won't we get in trouble when there isn't anybody here?"

"What'll they do? Give us _more_ detention? Who cares. Now come on, let's go already." Anita was starting to get impatient. She had a pretty short temper but there was something in the back of her mind that was telling her to cut Wraith a little extra slack.

"I-" Wraith stopped and thought about it for a moment more but then stood up and joined Anita at the door. "Yeah, alright, let's do this." 

"You might wanna grab your shit." Anita smirked and pointed back at Wraith's desk. Wraith blushed just the slightest bit and hurried to stuff her homework away and lift the bag up onto her shoulder. Once she was ready, Anita opened the door, checked the hallway again, and then lead the way towards the nearest exit.

Anita's movement was very nonchalant. She strode through the school's halls like she owned the place. Wraith, on the other hand, was almost the polar opposite. She peeked around every corner and was constantly checking back over her shoulder, afraid that they'd get caught. Luckily, the school was almost completely empty at this point and they were able to make it to one of the school's several exits completely trouble-free. Once they were outside, Anita took a deep breath of the fresh air and stretched her arms out wide.

"I'm going to celebrate my freedom with some ice cream. You wanna come with?" Anita had already started walking down the sidewalk but her question had caught Wraith off-guard and she was still frozen by the door. After a few steps, Anita slowed down and looked back at Wraith. "Well? Are you coming or what?"

"O-oh, uh, yeah, sure." Wraith stammered out as she bounced the few steps forward to catch up with Anita. The pair walked side-by-side on the sidewalk but Wraith wasn't at all thinking about where they were going, her mind was filled all sorts of other thoughts. '_Why did she invite me along_', '_Does this mean something_', '_Am I reading in to this too much_'.

"You never answered my question." Anita didn't let the silence hang between them for very long.

"What?" Wraith was snapped out of her thoughts by Anita's voice.

"What'd you do to end up in detention? It was your first time, right?"

"Oh uh... yeah." Wraith started to blush a bit. "I uh... I got in an argument with Ms. Slone and uh... called her a bitch."

Anita burst out laughing and Wraith blushed more. She felt genuinely bad about what she had done but seeing Anita laugh like this made her think that maybe she shouldn't feel so bad about it. Ms. Slone really _was_ kind of a bitch, anyway.

"Timid lil' Wraith called Miss Slone a bitch? No shit? Damn, I wish I could have seen that." Anita said, a smile still plain on her face. 

When Wraith looked over at Anita's laughing, smiling face she felt a warmth in her gut that she didn't quite understand. She hadn't felt anything like this before and felt a little bit confused as to not only what it meant but also why it was Anita of all people that was giving her this feeling. Before today, they both had known _of_ each other but neither of them really knew the other - they had never really interacted before at all. Everyone at school knew Wraith as the quiet loner who was always one of the smartest in class and Anita as the delinquent and occasional class clown who wasn't afraid to speak her mind about anything.

"Shit, I wish any of my detentions were because of something fun like that. All I ever get in trouble for is skipping classes and never doing my work." The last few of Anita's chuckles petered out as she spoke. Wraith opened her mouth to ask Anita a question but the pair had arrived at their apparent destination sooner than she had anticipated. They were outside a gas station that was a fairly common stopping point for students that walked home due to how close to the school it was.

"Oh, I-" Wraith patted the various pockets of her bag and then let out a sigh. "I think I left my wallet in my locker."

"Don't worry, just follow my lead." Anita said nonchalantly. She lead the way inside, immediately heading towards the freezers at the back of the small shop. Wraith glanced around and saw that the only other person in the store was the attnedent behind the counter whose attention seemed to be entirely focused on a magazine.

Anita casually started to peruse the various ice cream choices. Cones, sandwiches, popsicles, push-up pops, and each in all sorts of flavors. She and Wraith looked out over the numerous options and eventually Anita picked out a vanilla ice cream cone with a hard chocolate shell that was covered with nuts. She glanced over her shoulder back at the woman at the counter and then quickly stuffed the cone into the front pocket of her hoodie. The two meandered around the shop for another minute or two before Anita lead the way back out the front door.

"Do you know her or something?" Wraith asked after they had started their way back down the sidewalk.

"Hmm? No, why would I?" Anita's attention was mostly focused on unwrapping her ice cream cone now.

"But... you didn't pay for that... so I thought maybe she knew you and let you..." Anita just stared at Wraith as she spoke and let the girl come to the realization on her own. 

"Oh my god, you _stole_ that. That's _illegal_." Wraith said in a loud whisper. Anita couldn't help but laugh at Wraith's reaction.

"Don't worry, we're not going to go to jail over an ice cream cone." She took the first bite through the hard chocolate shell and then held it over towards Wraith. "Do you want some? I'd feel bad being the only one having some now."

"Oh... uh, sure, okay." Wraith timidly took the cone from Anita and took a bite out of it.

"And now you're an accomplice." Anita stated plainly once Wraith had the ice cream in her mouth. Wraith nearly spit it back out but realized fast enough that Anita was just messing with her.

"So, umm..." Wraith broke the silence that had fallen over them while they passed the ice cream cone back and forth as they took turns eating it. "Why is you're always skipping and stuff and getting in trouble? If you... don't mind me asking, I guess."

"Nah, I don't mind." She bit into the cone again and passed it back to Wraith. "It's just that school doesn't really matter for me. I'm gonna to be like everyone else in my family and join the military and they don't exactly have high standards. They'll take anyone just as long as you graduate. And even that's a pretty loose requirement."

"Your whole family?" Wraith repeated without thinking too much. Her mind was mostly focused on how should felt kind of sad that Anita had practically had her future decided for her. She didn't feel okay actually voicing that - not yet at least - so her brain just spit out whatever words she could.

"Yeah. That's how mom and dad met. Mom retired after they started having kids. And all three of my older brothers joined. The two oldest are already serving and the third is going to leave for boot camp in a couple of weeks. And I'll probably leave pretty soon after graduating too." This time Wraith felt a different kind of sadness, one that crept up on her as she realized that she only had a few months to try and form a new friendship.

The pair walked for a while longer and passed the ice cream cone back and forth without talking much more. Wraith was too nervous about pushing too deep into Anita's personal business and Anita was too focused on enjoying her ice cream. Eventually, Anita came to a stop and gestured at one of the houses. Wraith wasn't fully paying attention to where she was walking and bumped into Anita.

"Well, this is me." Anita said.

"Wha- o-oh, _oh_" Wraith had been too deep in her own thoughts so it took her a moment to fully realize that Anita meant that this was where she lived. Wraith looked over at the house and thought that it seemed nice enough. Two stories with a small front yard, and all of it looked rather well-kept.

"You okay there?" Anita leaned in front of Wraith to make sure the girl saw her sly smile.

"Y-yeah, I'm fine." Wraith smiled back. "I guess I'll see you around, then?" she added after a small pause.

"Yeah, seeya around." Anita's voice was a bit softer as she spoke and it caused the warm feeling to rise up in Wraith again. Anita turned to walk towards her house but quickly turned back to face Wraith again. "Oh, hey, one last thing. Can I call you something other than 'Wraith'?"

"Oh, it's fine... Wraith's fine." Wraith looked away from Anita. It wasn't a nickname she particularly enjoyed but it had stuck with her longer than friends or other nicknames ever had. Kids had given it to her years ago since she was so quiet, like a ghost.

"You sure about that?" Wraith nodded to confirm. "Well, what if I call you Lily instead?"

"Lily?" Wraith looked back at Anita, a bit confused.

"Yeah. Lillies are my favorite flower and you're pretty like one so I think it fits." Wraith wasn't sure but she thought she could see the slightest hint of blush appear on Anita's cheeks as she spoke.

"Oh... y-yeah, Lily is alright." Wraith felt her own cheeks warm up with blush and she did her best to hide just how much she was smiling. 

"Alright then Lily." Anita took a step back towards Wraith and patted her on the shoulder. "I'll see you tomorrow."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wrote this like a week ago and have been agonizing over a couple small bits of it but I finally got it to a point that I think is good enough to post. I already have two more chapters mostly done and will hopefully have them posted in the next couple of days. Wraith not having a regular name is really frustrating to write around because it makes so much stuff feel awkward and clumsy. I hope you enjoyed this, let me know what you think!


	2. Chapter 2

"Miss Slone really is a bitch." Anita stretched her arms out and took a deep lungful of the fresh outdoors air. Wraith stood next to her, just outside the school door they had snuck out of the day before. Their little stunt from the day before had netted them both an additional day of detention and, unfortunately, Miss Slone was on duty today. Detention had only been thirty minutes but, with all of Slone's angry lecturing, it had felt like hours. It had started with how Anita was a bad influence and Wraith used to be such a good girl but it had quickly moved on to larger topics about their futures and how they both reflected poorly on the reputation of Apex Academy. Neither of them had wanted to listen to it but any time it seemed like their attention lapsed brought Miss Slone's full fury down upon them with even more yelling and threats of even more detention.

"Yeah." Wraith agreed with a small sigh. She wasn't too excited about having served detention two days in a row but on the bright side it meant that she got to spend some time walking home with Anita again. Hopefully this time it’d feature a bit less crime.

"At least we've got people like you to let her know what's up." Anita said with a smirk, clearly hopeful that Wraith's outburst against Miss Slone that had initially gotten her into trouble wasn't going to be a one-off occurrence.

"I don't think I can do anything about her on my own." Wraith wasn't too enthusiastic about getting on Miss Slone's bad side any more than she currently was.

"Well don't worry, you've got me now." Anita said and patted Wraith on the back and started walking down the sidewalk. Wraith froze for a second before following behind Anita as part of her mind tried to interpret the girl's response to be a bit flirtatious while the other part of her tried to convince her that she shouldn't take it past face value.

"Hey, where do you live, anyway?" Anita asked once Wraith caught up with her. Wraith gave her usual somewhat-lost response of 'what'. Anita chuckled and clarified, "You basically walked me home yesterday so I figured we'd walk to your place first today."

"Oh uh, yeah sure. I'm down this way." Wraith gestured down the street towards where she lived with her two fathers.

"That way? So, wait, you walked twenty minutes in the opposite direction to my place, then had to turn around and walk all the way home by yourself?" Anita looked at Wraith in a sort of joking disbelief.

"Oh, I... yeah I guess so." Wraith blushed a bit as she realized her only excuse was that she enjoyed the time with Anita but she was a bit too embarrassed and far too shy to actually say that. Anita stared at Wraith for a moment and then gave her a sweet smile, as if she had figured out what Wraith had left out of her explanation.

"Well, let's get going then." Anita waved for Wraith to follow her and headed down the sidewalk in the direction Wraith had indicated. Wraith made a few quick steps to take up her place beside Anita and nervously fidgeted with the strap of her messenger bag that held her various textbooks.

"You really need to take all that shit home with you every day?" Anita asked as she gestured at Wraith's bag that was stuffed completely full, just as it had been the day before.

"Oh, these aren't _all_ of my textbooks. It's just the stuff I want to study tonight." Anita couldn't help but laugh at Wraith's answer. "What? What's so funny about that?" Wraith questioned.

"Nothing. It's just that you're, like, the straightest straight edge I've ever met." she answered between a few more chuckles. Wraith felt her cheeks turn a little bit red again. She knew what Anita meant but there was still part of her that wanted to object to being called 'straight', regardless of the context. Despite Wraith's best efforts to hide, Anita managed to sneak a look over at the shorter girl and catch a glimpse of her blushing cheeks.

"School's a lot easier when you don't give a shit." Anita said, hoping to help relieve some of Wraith's obvious embarrassment. She had thought for a moment about teasing Wraith and saying something along the lines of 'what, you don't like being called straight?' but she could tell that the girl was feeling uncomfortable enough just with her own thoughts and didn't need her new friend making things worse.

"It's just up here on the right." Wraith said and pointed ahead of them.

"Already? Damn, you live pretty close to school, huh." Anita tried, and failed, to hide her disappointment at the fact that they only spent a few minutes together today. Wraith grinned when she finally saw an opening for her to tease Anita back.

"What, do you want to walk me around the block once or twice before you head home?" she said, very pleased with herself. Anita rolled her eyes and smirked and Wraith thought she saw just the slightest hint of a blush across Anita's cheeks.

"I wouldn't want your parents to get worried about you getting home too late two days in a row." Anita looked away while she spoke in an attempt to hide the blushing that she could feel was getting worse.

"It's fine, they're both still at work so I'm all yours for a while longer." Wraith felt her own cheeks changing color as her mouth moved faster than her brain and got maybe a little bit too flirty with someone she had only known for barely two days now.

"Oh are you now?" Anita grinned and faced Wraith. Her cheeks had gotten significantly redder in a very short amount of time. She decided that a bit more teasing was fine now since it was the other girl who had started it.

"Well unfortunately for you, I actually have to get going because I'm on chore duty today at home. So maybe I'll take you some other time." Anita winked which almost instantly doubled the blush on Wraith's face. She clapped Wraith on shoulder and started to take a step back. "I'll see you tomorrow?"

"Uh y-yeah." The question snapped Wraith out of her embarrassed haze and she smiled at the thought of spending more time with Anita. Hopefully more detention wasn't going to be a prerequisite to that. Wraith gave a little wave as the two got further apart and then fished her keys put of her bag and unlocked the front door. Anita watched and made sure that Wraith got inside just fine and then she turned and headed back the way they came.

Anita had a big smile plastered across her face all the way home. Wraith was a little bit weird, a little bit awkward, and a little bit of a nerd but Anita liked her. A whole lot.


	3. Chapter 3

"Hey loser, get in." A familiar voice called out to Wraith. She was still half-asleep on her way to school and was wholly unprepared to be yelled at right now. What she saw when she looked over woke her up more than any cup of coffee could have: Anita behind the wheel of a beat up red pickup truck. At least she thought it was red. It was hard to tell where the rust ended and the paint began. Either way, Anita had opened up the passenger side door and was waiting for Wraith to climb in.

"But.... school." Wraith limply pointed in the general direction of Apex Academy.

"Yeah, we're skipping today. Now come on." Anita waved for her to climb in and, without giving too much more thought, she got in.

"Uhm, where are we going?" Wraith asked as she set her bag on the floor of the front seat and quickly got buckled in.

"I dunno. Just didn't feel like going today." Anita waited for the click of Wraith's seatbelt and then she pulled away, quickly passing by all the other students on their way to their early morning classes. Wraith watched Anita as she navigated the truck through traffic and thought that the girl seemed far too energized considering it wasn’t even seven in the morning yet.

"How much coffee did you drink? You seem... very awake."

"Military family, remember? We're always up and out of bed at five-thirty, no matter what." Wraith groaned at the very idea of waking up that early.

Before Wraith could say anything else, Anita slammed on the brakes to avoid a collision with someone who had apparently forgotten about concepts such as 'right of way' and 'turn signals'. It played out in slow motion for Wraith: Anita hit the brakes and in one quick motion reached a hand over in front of Wraith as if she was going to catch the girl from flying out of the windshield. The motion was pointless since the seatbelt did its job just fine but Wraith blushed a bit at the thought of just how concerned for her Anita was. Anita's hand brushed against Wraith's shoulder and even the brief contact was enough to make Wraith's heart skip a beat. She looked over at Anita and was glad to see that her friend was distracted by the other driver because she didn't want her to suspect that Wraith might have any extra feelings for her. She didn't think Anita would be homophobic or anything like that, but she was concerned about the idea that their newfound friendship might be ruined by awkward feelings.

"EAT SHIT, FUCK-BRAINS" Anita yelled out the window as she pulled her hand back away from Wraith so she could lean on her horn.

"Sorry about that." Anita said, her voice immediately relaxed as she spoke to Wraith. Wraith, in response, let out a small giggle at just how rapidly Anita's demeanor had changed from totally fine, to seething rage, and back to fine again. The giggle clearly tickled Anita a bit as her plain expression change to a small grin.

"You learn to drive yet?" Anita asked as they continued on their way.

"Oh, not yet. Brett and Gary don't have cars so I don't really have a way to practice." Wrath answered.

"'Brett and Gary'?" Anita parroted. "You don't call them 'dad'? I mean, I guess it could be confusing with two dads, but still."

"I just... never really called them that since they're my foster parents. I mean, they've raised me most of my life but its never really felt right..." Wraith's voice trailed off as she became concerned that she might be over-sharing again. It had been an issue in the past when Wraith tried to make friends and she was far too aware of what it could do to this relationship.

"Oh, shit, I'm sorry. I didn't know. I mean, I didn't mean to..." Now Anita's voice trailed off, clearly embarrassed that she may have accidentally broached a potentially touchy subject. They sat in an awkward silence for a moment before Wraith spoke up again.

"No, it's fine. I mean, you're fine." She went quiet again as she tried to think of something to say but instead of coming up with something clever, her mouth just started moving on its own. "They run a business together and their office is only like a block away so they just bike back and forth. It's an interior design thing. Brett is the actual designer but he doesn't know the first thing about business so Gary handles all of that. So, like, we've just never really had a car or anything. I'm not sure either of them even have a license, actually, so they'd probably be pretty lousy teachers. I wish Apex had Driver's Ed. classes like some schools do, that'd be really convenient. I guess I should probably go to the driving school across town, huh? I sorta don't want to though, it’s like... just not a thing I have much desire to do."

Wraith realized she was just rambling and looked out the window to try and hide her embarrassment from Anita. Part of her expected Anita to pull over somewhere and kick her out just as fast as she picked her up.

"So are you going to, like, take over the business after you graduate? You're always pretty highly ranked in our class, right? I bet you're smart enough to run a business." Wraith felt a wave of relief wash over her when Anita just carried on the conversation without making a big deal out of Wraith's awkward rambling.

"Probably not? Or... I dunno. I don't really know what I want to do. Gary is insistent that I go to college right away but I don't even know what I’d go for."

"Well, you could be anything you want, right? All the options are open to you, being so smart and all that. I guess that much choice is probably overwhelming though." Anita almost sounded like she was just thinking out loud. Wraith blushed a little at the sort-of compliment. Her academic ranking at the school did suggest that she was objectively 'smart' but she had never considered herself to be anything special. The pair fell into a silence again as Anita navigated them to nowhere in particular.

"So, uh, anything you wanna do? We've got all day." Anita asked.

"Oh, I uh, don't know. I thought you'd have some ideas."

"How about a movie?" Anita suggested. Wraith suddenly remembered some advice she had read once about how a movie was actually a bad first date since it was mostly just sitting together in darkness, not interacting at all. Of course she quickly corrected her thoughts: this was definitely _not_ a date and so she was definitely not going to think of it that way.

"Mmmm what if we go bowling?" The advice Wraith had read had suggested bowling as a great first date choice but she definitely didn't suggest it because of that because she was certain that this was absolutely not a date.

"Yeah, sure. I haven't been in forever. You aren't secretly a bowling prodigy looking to hustle me, are you?" Anita said with a smirk. Wraith laughed at the idea.

"I haven't been in a while either. Brett used to be in a league so I bowled a lot as a kid but it's been years since the last time we went."

Conveniently, the bowling alley was actually pretty close to where Anita's aimless meandering had gotten them to so they were able to get there pretty quickly. Once they parked and went inside, Anita took charge and paid for the equipment rentals and for a few games. The person working there gave they a side-eyed glance as he tried to figure out how or why two highschoolers were going bowling first thing in the morning but it seemed he didn't care enough to actually say anything about it. They grabbed some strange smelling bowling shoes, picked out balls, and made their way to the lane farthest in the back.

While Wraith wrestled her shoes on, Anita sat down and put their names in the score sheet - 'Lily' and 'Bangalore'. Wraith had assumed that Anita had forgotten about the nickname she had haphazardly picked out for the girl a few days prior and could feel some warmth in her stomach when Anita looked over and asked to make sure that was alright. Wraith smiled and nodded to confirm, happy to see Anita smile back at her.

"Bangalore?" Wraith asked as Anita sat down to change from her black boots to the bowling shoes.

"When we were little, we thought it was really cool how my parents and their military buddies had all these nicknames for each other so we got them to give us names too. Apparently they named us after some old battleships or something and I ended up with 'Bangalore'. We called them our codenames and pretended to be spies." Anita smiled while she reminisced about old times with her family. Wraith could see that there might’ve been a twinge of sadness deeper behind the smile but she decided not to press the point.

"Hey, before we start why don't we make this more interesting with a little bet" Anita - or Bangalore as she was known for now - said.

"Eehhhh, I don't know." Wraith - or Lily, rather - wasn't confident in her very rusty bowling ability and certainly not to the point of putting money on it.

"Aw come on. How about just loser pays for lunch?" Bangalore offered the deal again.

“I... okay sure.” Lily agreed and figured that win or lose it'd make their totally-not-a-date that much more exciting.

Lily stood up and grabbed her ball to start off their first match. It had really been a while but she assumed it'd come back to her pretty quickly. She stepped forward and as she swung her arm forward to launch the ball it instead stayed stuck to her hand and dragged her to the floor. Bangalore jumped up and knelt down next to Lily and checked on her.

"Are you okay?" she asked. Lily received some slightly mixed messages from the laughter that came out between Bangalore's words.

"Yeah, I'm fine." Lily was infected by Bangalore's laughter and started to giggle along with her. "Just rustier than I thought I was, I guess." Lily tried to get her fingers free from the ball but she ended up needing Bangalore's help to do so. When they got her free, Bangalore held on to Lily's hand and inspected it as if she were expecting to find a broken finger or something. Lily almost said something but she decided not to as she didn't mind the contact between them at all. Bangalore stood up with the ball in one hand and used the other to help Lily get to her feet.

"Let's get you a different ball. Your hands are so slender, I didn't think it'd be a problem." Lily wasn't sure if it was meant to be a flirtatious comment but she definitely took it that way as she felt the blush return to her cheeks. They quickly exchanged the ball for another one that was slightly heavier but had larger holes for her fingers. Lily had pretty scrawny arms but she wouldn't have any problem with the little bit of extra weight.

"Hey, I think the fall knocked your hair a bit loose." Bangalore mentioned as they walked back to their lane. Bangalore reached over and brushed a lock of hair back behind Lily's ear

"Oh! Thank you." The gesture caught Lily off-guard. "I'll fix the rest later." She could feel that her hastily-done bun that she put her hair into every morning had started to fall apart. Once they got back to their lane, she pulled the bun apart and pulled her hair back into a simple pony tail.

Most of their conversation from then on focused on the game and how well - or how poorly - they were doing. It turned out that it took Lily more frames than she thought it would to shake off the rust but by the end she was able to do well enough to catch up and, in the final frame, she scored enough to win the game 72 to 67. Neither of them had done particularly well but a win was a win.

"Ah, delicious. I think I'm going to get the biggest sandwich I can find." Lily's confidence had returned just in time for her to gloat.

"Don't get ahead of yourself, this isn't over yet. I paid for multiple games, this is a best of three." Bangalore replied.

"O-oh." Lily's confidence was immediately deflated and her smug grin melted away. She suddenly wondered if Bangalore had gone easy on her and was now planning on thoroughly thrashing her in the next two games.

It turns out that that wasn't Bangalore's plan at all because the second game they each only did slightly better with the final score being 85 to 79 - a win for Bangalore. While their joking and laughter continued into the third and final game, Bangalore's demeanor changed each time she stepped up to bowl. She was all smiles and laughs until she picked up a ball when she'd then become deathly serious but once she released it, she was back to being relaxed and jovial. Unfortunately, the seriousness only got Bangalore so far and Lily was able to barely eek out a win with a final score of 101 to 99.

"Two points! Ah, damn. Oh well, I guess that means you get to pick where we go for lunch." Bangalore said as she changed back into her boots. "You said you wanted a big sandwich, right? We could do Marley's, they've got some pretty massive subs."

Lily thought about it for a moment but came up with her own suggestion. "What about that little pizza place? 'Shooting Star Pizza' I think it's called?"

Bangalore smiled when she figured out what Lily was doing. She felt bad that Bangalore was going to pay for both the bowling and for lunch so she picked the place with cheap pizza instead of the more expensive sandwich place. She smiled at the thought but didn't let on that she knew.

"Yeah sure, I could go for some pizza right now."

Lily made a quick stop into the ladies' room to check in the mirror while she fixed her hair back into her usual bun. When she finished, she looked at herself in the mirror and took a deep breath to remind herself that this was definitely not a date.

"There you go, good as new. Looks cute." Bangalore said with a sweet smile when Lily joined her back outside. Definitely not a date.

* * *

Shooting Star Pizza was a 'little' pizza place in every possible way. The parking lot barely had enough space for half a dozen cars, there was only five small tables inside, and, as far as either Wraith or Anita could tell, it seemed to only have one person working there at the moment.

They had ordered a small personal pizza each - Wraith's was plain cheese and Anita's was sausage and bacon.

"What can I say, I love sticking hot meat in my mouth." she said when the pizzas arrived. Wraith either didn't notice the innuendo or didn't want to acknowledge it because her response was only about how good the pizzas looked.

Anita picked up her first slice but stopped just before taking a bite when she saw Wraith pick up a fork and knife. Wraith cut off a piece of a slice and forked it into her mouth before she realized Anita was staring at her.

"What?" Wraith smiled as she asked, unsure what Anita's response was going to be but their conversations had been so enjoyable that she didn't mind if she ended up being the butt of Anita's jokes from time to time.

“Nothing." Anita said with a grin.

“No, what is it." Wraith insisted.

Anita paused for a moment and then spoke. "Fork and knife? For pizza? Really?" She started to chuckle which in turn got Wraith laughing which then turned Anita's chuckle into a full-on laugh as well.

"Don't stare at me like I grew an extra head! It's greasy!" Wraith managed to say between laughs.

"Well don't worry, this won't be what makes me think you're weird. I already knew you were weird." Anita retorted.

The two let out a few more giggles before they quieted down and started to eat. As it turns out, three games of bowling in the morning was a good way to build up an appetite. After Wraith finished a slice and a half of her personal pizza, she pointed her fork at Anita and broke the silence.

"So, um... do you prefer Anita or Bangalore?" She wasn't sure if Anita sharing her secret nickname was supposed to mean that she wanted to be called that so Wraith just wanted to clear the air and know for sure. The answer she got caught her wholly off guard though.

"Whichever you think is cuter." Anita said with a sly grin. It was a good thing Wraith had already swallowed her previous bite of pizza because if she hadn't then she would've choked on it just then. She more or less managed to keep her cool and shot a sweet smile at Anita.

"Anita it is then."

"Okay, Lily." Anita's quick response made the familiar warm feeling in Wraith's cheeks come back. Even though she hadn't said it much yet, it made Wraith happy that there was a name that Anita, and only Anita, called her.

The two continued to eat until they started to hear the pitter patter of rain on the windows. Wraith looked out the window and watched the drops splash against the window and when Anita asked what she was looking at, Wraith just answered with 'it's raining.'

Anita stared out the window for a moment before she dropped her half-eaten slice of pizza, jumped put of her chair and exclaimed '_oh shit_' as she rushed outside to her truck. She fumbled with her keys for a moment, opened up the door, hopped in, and started to struggle against the old manual window controls. They had left the windows down. Once the windows were back in place, Anita rushed back inside. Even though she had only been outside for barely a minute or two, the rain had gotten so heavy so quickly that she was pretty soaked.

"You don't happen to have a towel back there, do you?" she called over to the lone employee behind the counter.

He looked around behind him for a moment and the answered, "Only ones that smell like pizza grease." Anita frowned and sat back down. She grabbed a handful of napkins from the dispenser at their table and tried her best to dry off her face and hair.

"Don't you just love it when it rains?" Wraith smiled as she stared out the window at the puddles that were accumulating in the various low spots of the parking lot. "It's like it's... it's just so peaceful."

Anita looked at Wraith, then out the window, then back at Wraith. "If you say so." she said through a smirk while she tried to think of a way to dry off without using up all the napkins in the entire building.

"What, you don't think so?" Wraith's attention moved back to Anita.

"Not particularly, no." She dabbed at some damp spots in her hair with a few more napkins and then gave up on the idea of drying off any more and tossed the napkins aside.

"Oh, I love it." Wraith smiled and looked back outside at the pouring rain.

"Once the rain lets up, we should probably start heading back." Anita changed the subject and moved her gaze outside as well.

They sat together and watched the rain for a while. The only sound in the pizzeria was a mix of the raindrops on the windows and the slightly staticky radio station coming from somewhere in the kitchen. As the rain started slowing down, Wraith turned back to Anita to ask if she wanted to get going but was surprised when she realized that at some point Anita's attention had gone from the rain back to Wraith. While Wraith enjoyed watching the rain fall, Anita had enjoyed Wraith's wholesome smile. Wraith's mouth hung open while the blush returned to her cheeks yet again.

"Oh, are you ready to go now?" Anita said with a smug smile. She knew what she did and she knew exactly how and why Wraith had reacted the way she did.

"Y-yeah, I think so." Wraith stammered out. Anita picked up both of their trays and threw out the scraps of pizza that were leftover and then lead the way out to her truck. They climbed in, buckled in, and Anita pulled out and started heading back towards Wraith's house.

"I'm glad you picked that place, it was pretty good pizza. Especially considering how cheap it is." Anita remarked while they waited at a traffic light.

"Well, thank you for paying for it. Free food always tastes better."

"Hey, you won the bowling match fair and square. I'm still not sure you didn't hustle me, though. We'll have to have a rematch sometime." Both of the girls grinned at the idea of doing this again sometime.

Anita pulled up to the curb out in front of Wraith's house and put the truck in park but spoke up just as Wraith started to open her door.

"Hey, Lily, before you go I have a quick question." Wraith's hand froze on the door handle and she felt that warmth in her stomach again when Anita called her 'Lily'. Anita uncharacteristically paused before she continued, as if she wasn't quite sure how to phrase what it was that she wanted to say.

"Was this a date?" she eventually asked.

Wraith's mouth fell open but words didn't come out. Anita's confidence slipped for a moment when she saw just how surprised Wraith was at the question. Maybe she had read Wraith wrong or maybe she had misinterpreted some of the jokes as more flirtatious than Wraith had intended them to be.

"I know you'd usually decide that _before_ going anywhere and not after like this but..." Anita tried to end the awkward silence but she wasn't able to even fully form the thought before she got to the end of the sentence.

"Yeah I think... yeah, I'd like it to be. A date." Wraith found it a bit difficult to talk, her heart being in her throat and all, but she eventually got the words out.

"Yeah? Alright." Anita let out a nervous laugh. "That was our first date, then."

Wraith leaned over and left a quick kiss on Anita's cheek and caused them both to turn quite red. She quickly grabbed her bag and hopped out of the truck. "Thanks for the date." she said with a smile. Just before she closed the door, she leaned back in and added "And we're actually going to school tomorrow, you've gotten me in more than enough trouble already!"

"Okay, fine, just for you." Anita smiled and they both let out relieved laughter.

Wraith closed the door and started to back away from the truck but didn't turn around towards her house just yet. She and Anita kept their eyes locked on each other, neither one of them willing to look away just yet. Until Wraith tripped over her own feet and nearly fell over. They both laughed some more and Wraith made her way to the front door. When she opened it and started to step inside, she turned back and waved to Anita one more time. Anita waved back and, once Wraith closed the door, she let out a loud sigh and excitedly banged her fist on the steering wheel.


End file.
